


It Had To Be You

by Wle0416



Series: Malex Week 2020 [7]
Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst with a Happy Ending, Forrest Mentions, M/M, Malex Week 2020, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-19
Updated: 2020-07-19
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:55:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25384900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wle0416/pseuds/Wle0416
Summary: Michael and Alex have been in a long distance relationship for years, and a big fight brings Alex to New York to save their relationship.Written for Malex Week 2020. Day 7.
Relationships: Michael Guerin/Alex Manes
Series: Malex Week 2020 [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1828741
Comments: 8
Kudos: 119





	It Had To Be You

**Author's Note:**

> This one got away from me a bit, but I had to let the soulmates be soulmates in the end.

Alex was freaking out.

He was freaking out, and the one person he would typically talk to about things was the one person he couldn't speak to right now. 

Instead, he was pacing his hotel room, walking back and forth from the door to the massive window overlooking Times Square, which was quieter than usual as a wintry December day kept most people inside. Michael had to run out to meet one of his colleagues quickly, leaving in an overpriced suite, in the most overpriced city in the world, slowly losing his mind.

After four years of long-distance, things just didn't seem to be clicking for Alex and the man he adored. They had tiptoed around where their future was headed for the last year, as Alex didn't want to move to New York, and Michael wanted no parts of moving back home to New Mexico.

But things eventually came to a head a month ago, during one of their more combative arguments.

It all started when Alex made a harmless joke about spending time with his ex, who was still in Roswell and a sore subject for Michael.

"Is throwing Forrest in my face supposed to be funny?" Michael had spit back at Alex over the phone, as his joke had just landed with a resounding thud.

"Michael, it was a joke. Seriously."

Michael huffed. "Is it? You're saying you could spend Christmas with your exes family because I'm not coming to Roswell this year. You don't see how fucked up that is?"

Alex had been sitting in his backyard, a small fire roaring, enjoying a glass of wine and relaxing after a long day. He was in no mood to start arguing with Michael for no reason. But when Michael got upset, it was impossibly hard to calm him down over the phone. "Again. It was a joke. You know I wouldn't be going to the Long's for Christmas."

"You're missing the point. Why even bring his name up? You know how I feel about him. I hate when you do this."

"Whoa," Alex said, his patience beginning to wear thinner and thinner. "You hate when I do what?"

"You say stupid stuff to get a reaction out of me. You're mad I can't come home, so you're bringing up Forrest fucking Long to get under my skin. I really don't appreciate it."

Well, that perfectly lovely, relaxing evening was officially out the window. "You know what I don't appreciate? My boyfriend deciding five weeks before Christmas that he doesn't want to come home anymore because, as usual, work is more important than anything else in the goddamn world."

Michael laughed, but Alex could tell it was laced with malice. "What happened to 'babe, I'm so proud of you and how hard you're working for our future'? Guess that was all a lie then."

"It wasn't a lie, Michael. But Jesus, I can't be upset we're spending another holiday apart?"

"So you throw someone else in my face?" Michael was full-on yelling now.

"It doesn't even matter honestly. You do whatever you want to do anyway. You always do."

"You're kidding me, right?"

Alex was silent.

"Oh, you're not! Wow. You pushed me to take this job, pushed me to leave my comfort zone, and live my life. And now it's I do whatever I want."

Alex remained silent. His head was spinning, but he knew he was seconds away from saying something he would never be able to take back.

"Yeah, stay silent, Alex. That's just perfect," Michael's voice was back to a reasonable level, but the bitterness came out with every word. "Hey, tell Forrest, I said Merry Christmas. And Happy New Year."

The phone went dead after that. And their relationship seemed to follow suit for about a week until Alex swallowed his pride and picked up the phone to call his boyfriend. Over that week, they'd exchanged some texts, but they hadn't spoken on the phone or facetimed.

The conversation was brief, and there were a lot of apologies. It all culminated in Alex offering to come out to New York for a long weekend to talk face to face.

Since early September, they hadn't seen each other in person when Michael came home to Roswell to visit his brother Max and meet his niece Rosalina for the first time. It was always nice to have Michael at home, but they'd barely gotten a chance to be alone the whole four days.

And now they were together again, for another four days, and they were only a few weeks removed from one of the biggest fights they'd had in their decade long on and off relationship.

Alex thought about calling his best friend Kyle for support, but he wasn't sure what kind of help he even needed. He'd come to New York wanting to work things out, needing to work things out. But everything was awkward, from the minute Alex saw Michael at La Guardia, and he told them they'd be staying in a hotel instead of his loft because he sublet his apartment.

_Huh_? Alex had thought to himself. Michael never mentioned it, and Alex immediately got suspicious. Everything had been so last-minute that he began to wonder if there was a more significant reason Michael didn't want Alex in his apartment.

He tried to push the thoughts to the back of his mind, but it wasn't working. And he'd spent way too much time thinking about it while pacing the room waiting for Michael to get back.

When he finally returned two hours after he'd left, his brownish curls were still coated with soft snowflakes, and he looked like he was freezing. 

_Serves him right though_ , Alex thought, considering how insistent he was that he didn't need a heavy jacket before he ventured out.

"Hey! You figure out what you want to do for dinner?" He proclaimed as he shook himself out of his jacket, and rubbed his hands threw his hair.

Even though Alex was internally screaming and falling apart, he still had eyes. And he couldn't take his off Michael. He was always perfection, but there was something about seeing him right now that almost made Alex forget about all the crap they'd been through lately.

Almost.

"Um, no. Sorry, I was talking to Kyle and got distracted," Alex lied through his teeth.

"Okay, well, we can get room service if you want. I've never stayed here, but it's the hotel a lot of our clients stay at when they're in town. And they rave about it."

Alex nodded and again began to wonder if there was a deeper reason they were staying here. "So, why didn't you tell me you were subletting your apartment?"

Alex tried to pretend he didn't see Michael wince slightly. "Uh, it was a last-minute thing. You know I don't even spend that much time there during the week. And Mark was looking for someone to help him with the rent since Sophia left. So, I could save myself a little cash and help Mark out for a bit."

Nothing Michael said made any sense.

Michael was an architect at a fantastic firm, and Mark was an assistant there. He was also from out west, and the two had hit off immediately. But Michael, still a frugal cowboy at heart, had a pretty modest apartment in Greenwich Village. And Mark and his girlfriend had a much nicer one in Tribeca. There was no way Michael was saving money by staying with Mark.

"Oh, okay," Alex pretended to be unaffected, but his façade was fading. "Room service is fine. I'm pretty tired from the flight, so I'm just going to grab a shower real quick. But I'll have whatever you're having."

Alex escaped to the bathroom without waiting to hear Michael's response and locked the door behind him. He ended up spending nearly a half-hour in there, first plucking his eyebrows meticulously and then standing under the scolding hot water in the shower. He only came out when Michael knocked on the door to say he had to pee.

When he finally emerged, the bathroom towel wrapped tightly around his waist, he couldn't help but notice how Michael was looking at him. He looked at him with pure lust and satisfaction, and it brought Alex back to the earlier days in their relationship when they couldn't get enough of one another.

They would touch each other constantly and kiss even more than that. There was nothing Alex loved more than the feel of Michael's skin beneath his fingers. And he knew Michael had felt the same way because it was always written across his face.

"You okay in there?" Michael asked as his eyes stopped roaming Alex's chest and settled on his eyes.

"Yeah. Water just felt really good," Alex bristled. He made his way to the closet where his suitcase was located and soon heard the bathroom door slam.

Alex got dressed into sweats and made his way to the large window to take another look at the vast city down below. He didn't dislike New York as much as Michael probably thought, but it was far from his favorite place. He was just a small town, desert boy, and it was hard for him to picture a life in any city, much less New York.

But Michel loved it. Sure, it took time for him to adjust, but he loved his job, and he had a group of friends that he adored. And Alex was genuinely thankful for that. He just started to wonder over the past year or so where he fit into Michael's life.

Alex loved being a teacher, and he loved his sixth-grade class at Roswell Prep School. But he wasn't exactly rolling in the money, so when Michael came upon the opportunity to move out east and accept his dream job, Alex couldn't stand in his way. He deserved it and so much more.

A knock on the door jerked Alex out of his head, and he answered it to see a pleasant-looking man and a large amount of food on a cart.

The man rolled the cart in, and Alex ran to the nightstand to grab his wallet. He handed the man a ten-dollar bill, and he left as quickly as he came.

Alex saw that Michael ordered two steaks with baked potatoes, a side of broccoli, two slices of chocolate cake, and a champagne bottle. It was such a New York City Michael thing to order.

"Yes! I'm starving!" Michael proclaimed as he exited the bathroom and headed right towards the food. "Let's eat in bed. Pretend like we're back in that shabby hotel in Jersey City when I first moved out here."

Alex allowed himself to laugh as he remembered the two traveling out east for the first time when Michael was interviewing. They had stayed at a horrible hotel where they ordered all kinds of cereal and ate in bed all night.

"This is slightly better than frosted flakes, though!" Alex found himself beaming at Michael, and it was the most natural he'd felt since he got there.

They made a makeshift table on the bed and dug right into their food. They didn't even bother with glasses, passing the champagne bottle back and forth. They'd turned on the tv and decided to watch a Friends rerun, and it was as peaceful a moment between them as there'd been in weeks.

So naturally, it was too good to be true.

"I wish it could always be like this," Michael mused.

"Yeah, well, it's not real," Alex remarked. He was removing all their plates from the bed and placing them back on the cart.

Michael looked perplexed. "What does that mean?"

Alex motioned around the room as if that was supposed to answer the question. "I came here to talk, and we're in an expensive suite eating room service. This isn't real life."

"Do you not like the room?"

Alex collapsed back on the bed, keeping a healthy distance between him and Michael. It hit him that they hadn't even touched since they'd seen each other. "The room is beautiful, Michael. But I didn't come here to play pretend in this hotel."

"I can't win with you," Michael said under his breath, though Alex heard it.

"What?"

Michael sat up, straighter in the bed, and turned his body to Alex. "I don't know what you want me to do. Just tell me. Please. Because whatever it is you want, I'll do it. I'll do it, Alex."

Alex wasn't prepared for that answer; confusion etched across his face. "I don't know. I don't know what to say that."

"We decided together that I would come here, right?"

"Yes."

"When did things change?"

Alex shifted his body in the bed, so he was leaned against the bedframe, arms folded across his chest, his eyes transfixed on the spot above the television. "Things just don't feel the same anymore. We go weeks and weeks and weeks without seeing one another. One of us falls asleep before the other even has a chance to call at night. When we drove out to Foster's Ranch before you moved and talked things through, we promised we wouldn't get lazy, and we wouldn't let anything come between us. And we did."

"But I mean I got more job responsibilities this year. And we talked about that, Alex. You knew it meant fewer trips back and forth and longer hours."

Alex turned his head to look at Michael. "I never thought it would get this bad."

"I didn't realize it was that bad. I know things haven't been great, okay. But bad?"

Alex saw the devastation on Michael's face, and he realized that Michael was telling the truth. He knew their relationship was evolving, and something needed to change, but he didn't realize just how close to the brink they were.

And that was part of the problem.

"You've been so busy."

"But you don't say anything, Alex. You pretend to be happy for me, and you pretend to understand my schedule. Then out of nowhere, you start talking about Forrest, and you know how I feel about that. It's like you find the one thing in this world you know will just hurt my fucking heart."

Alex wanted to reach out and touch Michael, but he stopped himself. "I'm sorry I brought up Forrest. It was petty. And I said it to get a reaction because I'm tired, Michael. I'm so tired. "

"Of what? Me?"

"No!" Alex exclaimed. "I mean, I don't know. I just…this last year has been hard."

Michael was the first the breach the invisible wall that had been erected between the two and placed his hand over top of Alex's. "I'm so sorry. I will do better. I will be better. I've been working like crazy for you. For us. For our future. Because that's what important to me, baby."

"But you can't neglect the now. We can't neglect the now."

At this declaration, the tears sprung to Michael's eyes, and he did his best to wipe them on his shirt. Alex felt the tears well in his eyes, seeing Michael break, but he willed them not to fall.

"I love you so much," Michael finally said after an extended silence had set in.

"I love you, too. This isn't about love."

"No," Michael proclaimed louder, removing his hand from Alex. "This is about love. And sacrifice. And all that shit."

Alex didn't understand, so instead of speaking, he waited for Michael to finish his thought.

"I lied to you about my apartment. I got out of the lease. And I put in my notice. I'm done at the end of January."

Alex froze in bed. He didn't even realize at first that he was clutching the sheets like his life depended on it. "Michael, why didn't you tell me any of this? Like what the hell?"

Michael looked guilty. "I don't know. It all happened so fast. I was just sitting at my desk a couple of weeks ago, and I thought it was time to move on. It was time to start that future I keep talking about, but I wasn't even sure if I could do it. And I didn't want to tell you and then take it back. I figured when things finally fell into place, I'd surprise you, but then we fought, and next thing I knew you were coming here to break up with me."

Alex ignored that last part. "We don't keep things from each other. Especially life-altering things!"

"Really? You came here to break up with me, and you're getting mad at me for keeping things from you?" Michael's face was blank. The tears were gone, replaced with emptiness.

"That's what you think this is? That was not my intention in coming here. I swear to you."

"What was your intention?"

Alex was exhausted. "I don't know. To talk and get past this sadness I have about you. I want it to stop."

Michael let that statement breathe, leaning against the bedframe. He reached out once again to take Alex's hand into his, and this time Alex laced their fingers together.

"You know," Michael began. "I used to think that we were perfect. I know that's silly, but I did. I thought no two people loved each other more than us. And no one laughed more than us. No one had better sex than us. I still think that last one."

Alex chuckled slightly.

"But," Michael continued. "I clearly don't know anything."

Alex squeezed his hands. "You know a lot. You're so smart. We aren't perfect, but what we have is special. And I love you. I truly do."

"I love you, too."

"I'd choose you in a hundred lifetimes, baby." Alex's voice hitched in his throat. "I will never stop loving you. And I don't want to stop fighting for you, so I'm not going to. That's why I came here."

Alex noticed all the tension that had been pooling in Michael's shoulders began to deflate. "You didn't come here to break up?"

"Why do you think that?"

"It's been awkward as ass since that fight. And then you just decide to come here out of the blue. And the way this conversation was going. It just, it started to feel like the last time."

Alex shuddered, remembering that six years ago, no matter what they did, they couldn't figure out how to make their relationship work. There were too many outside factors, too much alcohol, and too many egos.

It was the breakup that pushed Alex toward Forrest for six months.

"So, what's the plan, Michael? You don't have a job. You don't have an apartment. You're really flying by the seat of your pants here." Alex tried to break the heaviness of the moment by nudging his partner slightly.

"I've been looking at a few firms in Albuquerque. I know the city isn't your thing, but maybe we could compromise and find something in between there and Roswell. Well, closer to Roswell because you need to be close to the school." Michael was deadly serious, and Alex felt his heart flutter.

"You said you didn't want to come back to New Mexico."

"I don't want to come back to Roswell. It's hard to do my job there, and I'm good at my job. I love the work that I do. But I don't love anything as much as I love you."

Those tears Alex had previously fought back? They were spilling out now. "Michael, are you sure?"

Michael brought his thumb up to Alex's face and smoothed a tear into his cheek. "Of course, I am."

Alex hurriedly got off the bed and practically sprinted to his carry-on bag, leaving a stunned Michael still sitting on the bed. He dug to the bottom, where he kept a small bag of emergency toiletries. Tucked next to a travel size deodorant was a ring box.

"What's going on?" Michael called to Alex, still sitting on the bed.

Alex turned around to him and sauntered back to the bed. He stood by the edge and put the ring box on the bed in front of Michael.

Michael looked up at Alex with his large, piercing eyes, unsure of what to do next. "Alex?"

"Open it."

Michael did as he was told, slowly opening the box to reveal a platinum band. He carefully picked it up, treating it like a newborn baby, examining every inch before bringing his now bleary eyes back to Alex.

"I meant what I said. I'd choose you in a hundred lifetimes," Alex practically whispered. "I've had the ring for a while, I just didn't know when the right time would be for us. But I want this, Michael. You have my whole heart. Will you marry me?"

Michael lunged towards Alex, pulling him into a deep kiss that caused Alex to lose his balance. They both landed on the bed, wrapped up in one another's bodies. Limbs were crashing and colliding clumsily.

"Yes, baby. Of course! Of course!" Michael said happily in between kisses.

Alex started to intensify the kisses, but Michael pulled away. "What's wrong?"

"Get dressed! We have to go somewhere!" Michael was bouncing around the room, grabbing his clothes and getting dressed in record speed. He wasn't talking much, beyond a few commands for Alex to hurry up.

Within five minutes, the two men were out in the bitter December cold, snow coating their faces, arms wrapped tightly around each other. Alex still didn't know where they were headed, but Michael was on a mission.

Alex was still so giddy from the proposal. A little out of breath from following Michael, he didn't even realize they were standing in front of Rockefeller Center until the Christmas Tree illuminated his face. Much like everyone in the world, Alex had seen it on television, but it was magnificent up close.

"This is beautiful," Alex beamed, taking in the picturesque scene in front of him. Enthralled with the lights and the sounds around him, he didn't even notice Michael down on one knee in front of him until he tugged on his jacket.

"Remember that weekend in Jersey City, after the cereal, we talked about coming here for Christmas. But we never got the chance," Michael said before reaching into his pocket to pull out a titanium ring. "I always told myself this is where I would propose to you when we made it here. Alex Manes, love of my life, man of my dreams, will you marry me?"

Alex laughed and craned his neck back to let the snowflakes that land on his smile. He was cold, wet, and the happiest he'd ever been in his life.

"A hundred times, yes."

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading :)


End file.
